I Saw the Sign, It Opened Up My Mind
Obvious sign showing the way. Come spend money here. And I did. |
This type of sign is common along the gap. Where the local amenities are. Spend money guide map. |
- The Hockanum River Path – Part of the East Coast Greenway. You can pick this up at the end of the East Hartford Great River Park trail or jump on behind East Hartford Town Hall.
- The Charter Oak Greenway – This path starts on Forbes Street just a block North of Silver Lane and follows the I-84 / I-384 corridor. You can ride to Wickham Park on a spur or go straight to downtown Manchester. This trail almost connects to the Hop River Trail between Manchester and Willimantic.
- The East Hartford and Hartford multi-use paved paths along the riverfront. There are several miles of paved paths along both sides of the river.
- North-South off road trails along the dikes and Connecticut River. One can ride all the way from Hartford North to Windsor on off road trails – on both sides of the river. Heading South from Great mountain biking right from Downtown Hartford.
- Mountain Biking in Keney Park – Right in our back yard. Easy carriage paths and rather technical single track. Keney is such a big park you could camp there for a week without bothering anyone.
- The I-91 overpass between North Downtown and Hartford’s Riverside Park. I wrote a whole article about that under used connection.
- The trail system from New Haven to Westfield, MA. This nearly cross state route only has a few gaps remaining. This is also part of the East Coast Greenway route.
- The 5 miles of trail along CT Fastrak between Newington Junction and Downtown New Britain.
- Camping. Informal, free (or cheap) primitive camping at ~10 to 15 mile intervals. These sites are maintained by the local park district or volunteers. The lean-to shelters are for through hikers and bikers only and are built by the local scout troops. This would be an ideal amenity in the Riverfront Park on either the East Hartford or Hartford side. Cyclists that stay at the shelters are guaranteed to stop in your city for groceries, tourist activities, and restaurants. They’ll also wax ecstatically about the awesomeness of your city to friends. Examples – Connellsville, PA has 4 lean-to shelters on a grassy rise outside their business district. I ate a huge breakfast there and they just got free advertising. Confluence, PA has $5 hiker / biker camping at the city campground, walking distance from the city center.
- Obvious and advertised lodging, hotels, and bed and breakfast directly along the route.
- Mileage signs along the route letting you know how far you are from nearby cities and amenities such as lodging, restaurants, and bike shops.
- Warm Showers hosts to provide options to budget bike tourists. These bike tourists are usually on a tight budget. If you can’t get their hotel dollars, they’ll still eat in your city. Hartford fortunately has an active group of WS hosts, but it would be good to get more of them along the route in other Connecticut ECG cities.
- Connectivity. Connect the damn segments. Even if there are on road segments. Put up clear signs that hook trails into each other so that folks don’t have to guess – or miss the connection altogether.
Mckeesport. A narrow bike way under a building overhang, next to rail. Creative! |
While leaving Mckeesport, PA outside of Pittsburgh on the GAP trail I noticed many creative infrastructure solutions that accomodated a multi-use path on a constrained or otherwise challenged corridor. I challenge the CT DOT and Hartford’s DPW to stop being whiners about “corridor width” and look to other cities for solutions. Part of the solution is a city (and businesses) that cooperate. We’re all in this together. If mountainous Pittsburgh can be a bike friendly city (with winter, cobblestones, and so many rivers), Hartford has it damn easy.
An unused (so far) rail bridge connection. I chilled here for a bit. |
Can you spot the coal seam? |
Learning about coal from a sign. Holding in your hand is akin to reading porn. |
I’m not sure why, but touch coal feels illicit. I just want to burn it and act like a romping caveman. So much history, geologic and human, in that small handful. And so much slow destruction of our climate.
Entrance to a mine… that horizontal sliver. |
Peeking into the mine. Rotten timbers support the rocks above. |
Ohiopyle is beautiful! |
This summer we most definitely made signs for BiCi Co. You won’t catch us under publicizing a new Hartford gem!
Summer BiCi Co service project – Painting signs with Brendan Gingras! |
Source: http://beatbikeblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/i-saw-sign-it-opened-up-my-mind.html
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